Phil was born to Margaret (Jennings) and Philander Norton in Port Washington, N.Y. As a youth, he enjoyed playing the piano and baseball and spent summers at the family cottage on Seneca Lake in New York. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy and Wesleyan University, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Brazil during World War II as a meteorologist. He met Betty at a YMCA dance in Dayton, Ohio while he was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and expressed gratitude throughout his life for that chance meeting. They were married on Sept. 14, 1946, at Victory Methodist Church in Dayton and moved to Naugatuck, Conn., where they raised five children.

He worked at Uniroyal as a statistician and found time to be an eager participant in his children's lives. He was active in the Naugatuck Congregational Church in many roles, served as a deacon and especially enjoyed being a member of the choir. He served as a YMCA swim team coach and volunteered in a variety of capacities in Little League. After Phil retired, they moved to Dayton where Betty and Phil cared for her mother until her death in 1991. They stayed in the family home until 2008, when they moved to Friendship Village.

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